Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/355

CH. XXIII.] to him, for the thermometer seldom stood higher in the night than at 88°. The poor fellow had weighed all these circumstances in his mind, and felt them in his body; and, with some hesitation, entreated me not to take him to any place colder than Guatemala. Upon my insisting that I would take him with me to England, his copper face turned pale, and he cut short all nicer discussion by assuring me — he would never go there. I was obliged to be content with availing myself of his services to the coast, to which he had no objection, and, in the course of ten minutes, he was ready for the expedition.

He had a great contempt for dress of any kind, and, on this occasion, in addition to the cotton drawers and shirt which usually formed the whole of his apparel, he had loaded his person with a pair of laced Wellingtons and thin sky-blue cotton Wellington overalls. He had usually worn a very narrow brimmed old English hat, which had completely lost the nap but